


#love

by Sarcastic-Mess (MasterOfDisaster)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst as a plot device, Fluff, Gymnastics, M/M, Self-Esteem Issues, TikTok, but mostly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:02:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27067582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MasterOfDisaster/pseuds/Sarcastic-Mess
Summary: What happens when you give bored Superheroes an outlet in video form?A couple of very happy snipers apparently.
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 59





	#love

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while, huh?  
> When I realized at the beginning of September I hadn't posted anything in nearly a year (it has now been a year) I set myself a mission of finishing something soon and decided on a story I had basically planned out in its entirety already, but just had lost interested in writing months ago.  
> This is not that story.  
> I started this months ago when I got into watching TikTok and felt the urge to make my own videos, but I'm not creative enough for that, so I decided to write about it. Wrote half of it, let it sit for months and wrote the rest in the last two days. (I'm seeing a trend.)  
> References/Video mentioned I will include in the End Notes, so I won't spoil.
> 
> Anyway, hope you will enjoy this fun little thing and maybe if you're interested in a Loki/Clint Actor!Au, you'll stick around. It will come. Soon. And a CaptainWinterFalconHawk Canon fic. And a Kingsman crossover. (Is it a crossover if it's all Marvel already?) And a Teen Wolf crossover.  
> Yes, sadly that's how I work. But the Actor!Au is closed to finished, so that's first.
> 
> Sorry for rambling. Enjoy!!

It was a point of pride for Clint to be able to sneak up on Tony. Usually, Jarvis announced a visitor or Tony was watching the security cameras to see who was in the common areas, but Clint managed to surprise Tony every now and then in new ways. Sometimes it was for pranks, sometimes just to hear him curse up a storm when Clint appeared at his side out of nowhere. 

So he was expecting to just surprise Tony in his workshop and nothing more, but what he found was infinitely better. 

Some music with female vocals was playing and Tony… Tony was dancing in front of a tripod-mounted phone. 

Jaw slack, Clint could just stare as the music cut and Tony told Jarvis to hit it again. Fifteen seconds, the same music, the same dance. 

“What are you doing?” Clint finally asked as Tony reviewed what he had done. 

Tony flinched and whirled around with wide eyes. “Birdman! How about that bell we were talking about?” He sighed when Clint ambled over and raised an eyebrow at him. “It’s called TikTok. It’s like Instagram for videos and stuff. Comedy, music, art. Whatever you want. Sounds like a good PR, doesn’t it?”

“Sure,” Clint agreed, noting the tension in Tony’s shoulders. “Never heard of it. Show me?” 

Clint just wanted to make Tony less uncomfortable. He hadn’t known what he was getting into. 

~

“One video for each of us! Come on, we have to introduce ourselves with our best traits!” Tony’s exclamation earned deadpan looks from everyone except Clint who grinned and threw his arms in the air. 

“Yes! The dogs will notice me if we have a lot of followers.” 

“What are you talking about?” Natasha asked patiently, but Clint knew the undertone of _get to the point or I will make you._

Tony launched into an elaborate explanation with Clint’s delightful inputs and they waited with bated breath for everyone’s reactions. 

“Okay,” Natasha said and Clint blinked, looked at Tony, looked at Natasha and blinked again. 

“Okay?” 

“Sure. I’m not doing any undercover stuff anymore.” 

Bucky was the one who rolled his eyes. “I’m not doing any.” 

“Like on your own? Or you don’t want to be in any of them at all?” Tony asked and that was good. Consent was important. 

“Some introductory stuff. Just do your thing and don’t mind me. I don’t care if I’m in the background or whatever.” 

Clint grinned and spread his arms wide to wrap them around Bucky who glared back, but didn’t say no, so Clint hugged him and shook him back and forth in excitement. 

“I have the perfect idea for you.” Tony whipped out his phone and Clint saw him cue up the sound of Dua Lipa’s _New Rules_. “Now, this is an acting challenge.” He let the music play and counted with the lyrics. “Each one is a different emotion and you have to do it back to back without pausing it. Happy. Sad. Angry. Flirty.” 

“Is this really a good idea?” Steve asked, frowning like the Dad he was, but Sam was just nudging him with a grin. 

“It’s teenage fun, grandpa. Let them.” 

They all watched from behind the camera as Natasha flawlessly nailed it first try. 

“Awesome,” Clint whispered. “I love you.” She looked at him indulgently as he hopped up and down excitedly. 

“Now for you, Capsicle, I was thinking of showing off your art.” 

Steve looked slightly surprised, but a pleased smile appeared on his face. 

“Therapy slash veteran advice from Sam. Science from Bruce. Baking from Thor. Skipping Bucky, I think that’s it.” 

“What about you and Clint?”

“I have an idea already,” Clint answered with a mischievous smile. It mostly involved startling everyone and pranking Tony.

Tony snorted and threw Steve _a look._ “As if there is someone who doesn’t know me.” 

~

“Clint.”

He startled, looking up blinking. “Hey, Nat.” He smiled in confusion at her casual outfit consisting of jeans and a sweater. “Weren’t you going to train with Steve and Bucky?” 

Her eyebrow was very judgemental. “I did. For four hours. And I took a shower. Have you moved at all?”

He put on his puppy dog eyes, trying to pretend like he hadn’t been completely sucked into watching fifteen seconds videos for hours without realizing it. “Dogs?” 

“Sure.” She sat next to him and cuddled up to him as he showed her all the cute TikTok dogs and the occasional cat. 

~

Clint loved how his team was embracing the TikTok world. Each day there were at least three videos filmed by someone or another and no one was doing it because Tony or Clint was pestering them. Well, maybe Bruce. And Natasha. But they were always willing to participate when someone else started something. 

Natasha and Tony were doing one of the dances and they were doing so good and Clint hugged his pillow to his chest watching them because he couldn’t handle it. 

“Marshmallow,” Bucky said from behind him and Clint didn’t even care that the tone was a bit condescending. Clint was too happy.

~

“I saw something.” Tony’s eyes were a bit bloodshot and his hands were shaking, but Clint knew that tone. That tone promised fun. “I saw an artist draw a character from an Anime who kisses other characters of this Anime and draw a comic for each scenario how they would react.” 

“You want me to kiss each of our teammates because you do not want another lecture about our public Image.” Clint didn’t let Tony make up any excuses or reasons. “I’ll do it.” 

“Awesome.” 

Tony really had come to the right place. Clint was always up for anything, especially involving catching his teammates off guard. 

The first one was Bruce. They were in the kitchen and Bruce wasn’t suspecting a thing, as Clint made sure Tony was ready before Clint went over to Bruce who was just finishing a mug of tea. 

Clint moved close to him and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek, not touching anywhere else. Delighted he watched as Bruce’s face turned red, his mouth opened and closed multiple times without uttering a sound. 

“Sorry,” Clint winked and Bruce managed to roll his eyes and turn back to his tea, but his ears were still a little flushed and it was adorable. 

Next was Steve, but because Clint knew Steve would have a boring reaction on his own, Clint waited until Sam was there too. Bucky was skulking around, but that was fine. Whenever he didn’t actually want to be in a video, even in the background, he just moved out of the frame. 

Clint slipped in between Steve and Sam, both of them looking at him with a bemused expression. With a smile Clint couldn’t suppress, Clint pressed a kiss to Steve’s cheek who only blinked with no other reaction as predicted, but then Clint turned to do the same thing to Sam. Hands went up to either side of Clint’s face and he was pulled into a proper kiss, lips to lips, closed-mouthed and chaste, neither of them unable to keep from laughing when Steve sputtered loudly. 

“Having fun?” Natasha asked, coming out of the elevator and taking in Steve’s red face and Sam and Clint giggling while leaning on each other. “What are you doing?” 

Clint just grinned and bounded over, seeing Tony ready his phone in the corner of his eye, planting a firm kiss on her cheek. Before he could pull away, her arms were around his shoulders and a hand was firmly pulling his head to her shoulder, before stroking through his hair and up and down his back. He sacked into the touch, familiar and comforting as it was. 

“That’s fantastic,” Tony announced and Clint straightened up and hopped over to Tony to snatch up the phone and turn it to film both of them before Clint kissed Tony’s cheek. 

Tony giggled widely and kissed Clint back on the cheek, pretending to be all shy and stuff. 

“And that’s everyone. Well, except Thor, but who knows when he shows up.” Clint turned the phone again to look at all the footage.

“You didn’t do it on me,” Bucky said and Clint nodded, most of his attention on the phone.

“Hard to ask for consent to touch you if it’s a surprise challenge,” Clint said absentmindedly.

“You never ask for consent,” Bucky said and Clint looked up with a frown, his brain needing another second to catch up to the conversation. 

“I always ask. I would never touch you if you weren’t okay with it.” 

Bucky looked at him with a weird expression, something between a frown and a glare, but it wasn’t too far from his day to day expression, so it was hard to say what he was thinking. “You can do it.”

“Uh.” Clint blinked. “That’s cool, but it’s supposed to be a surprise and capture the first reaction.” 

“Just do it. Start filming,” he told Tony who raised his eyebrows but took back the phone to get ready. 

If Bucky was okay with this, then it was fine. It wouldn’t be candid, but it would probably still be funny to see Bucky scowl after being roped into this.

“You sure about this?” Clint asked just in case, bouncing a little on his heels next to Bucky who rolled his eyes. 

“Are you? You didn’t seem to have a problem with Sam just kissing you without asking, but now you’re stalling.”

This time it was Clint’s turn to roll his eyes. “Whatever, Barnes. Everyone here has standing consent with me for stuff like that. I don’t mind.” 

Bucky didn’t really respond to that, just looked at Tony who gave them a thumbs-up and Clint nodded. 

Bucky’s stubble was soft under Clint’s lips and his long hair tickled his ear. Clint leaned back to see Bucky’s reaction, but Bucky’s hand, the left one, the one away from the camera, cupped the back of Clint’s head and suddenly Clint was kissed. 

The hold on Clint was firm but not unbreakable, the first few seconds tentative enough for Clint to back out immediately, but there was no way. Clint kissed back a bit playfully. He didn’t want Bucky to think he was doing anything wrong for even a second. 

Then he could only hold on. He had just enough time to make sure he didn’t reach out to grab Bucky instinctively before he was kissed within an inch of his life. With an occasional hint of teeth and a tease of a tongue, Bucky expertly reduced Clint’s thinking to zero. 

After what could have been either hours or seconds, Bucky slowly eased off, fingers gently stroking through Clint’s hair as their lips separated. Clint’s chest was heaving as his eyes fluttered open, brain still trying to catch up. Bucky licked his lips and then smirked. 

“Surprise.” He sounded completely unaffected while Clint blinked and stared after Bucky’s retreating back, before looking over to where everyone else was looking at him. Some were trying to keep from laughing while Steve was blushing a little and Natasha smiled in that way she did that was terrifying because she knew Clint better than anyone else.

“Holy shit.” 

Tony gave up and dissolved into a giggling mess, though he was only too gleeful to inform Clint later that his reaction was a great ending of the video. 

~

Bucky and Clint didn’t talk about it. Bucky still let Clint be goofy or touch him without telling him off more than not and still joined Clint for shooting practice. Their relationship didn’t really change and that was all that really mattered. 

Clint kept thinking about that kiss though. Not his fault if that was the best damn kiss he had ever had. 

~

Clint was in the gym when Tony showed up with the next video idea. 

“It’s a ‘Flexibility Check’. Many gymnasts do it.” Tony showed him the tag and let Clint take over the phone. 

Some were jokes with other people helping or using tricks to achieve it, but mostly it was people actually showing off. Some were standing on one foot and used the other to tick up the numbers with the beat of the song and into a straight line up at twelve o’clock, others managed to fold themselves in half to the other side of the screen in a full circle. Some were doing handstands or headstands with both legs going over the numbers or just doing some moves without the numbers and the same song. 

“Gymnast,” Clint wondered out loud and clicked the tag _Gymnastics._ All the results were shocking. 

Video after video of kids, women, men, all doing flips and routines on mats and beams and vaults and trampolines and bars. Fails and successes and tutorials. 

“It’s a sport,” Clint stated and blinked up at Tony who nodded, looking amused. 

“Yes. Very competitive. Very worldwide. It’s a part of the Olympics.” He made a hand gesture. “About that Flexibility Check.” 

“Oh. Yeah. Sure. Let’s do it.” He gave the phone back and jogged away a couple of steps until his whole body should have been in the frame. 

“Oh. You want to- Yeah, totally. Let’s do it.” 

Clint regularly did Yoga with Natasha and obviously kept in shape, so he didn’t think it would be a huge problem. “How do you want to do this?” 

“Couple different ways? To get a great take?” 

“Sure.” Clint rolled his shoulders. He was already warmed up from his workout, so he put his arms behind his back and shifted his weight on his right leg. On Tony’s mark he started ticking up his left leg up four beats into a right angle at hip height and then continued up until he was in a full split and then some more. He shook out his legs when he was standing normally again. “Handstand next?” 

“Uh, sure.” Tony’s eyes were wide and Clint grinned at his surprise. 

“What? You thought I was going to fall on my face?” 

“Honestly? Yeah.” 

Clint laughed and went into a handstand, taking a second to get used to the mat giving a little under his hands, before the music started again.

~

Sometimes Natasha had moments when she wasn’t sure how she had gotten to where she was in life. But every time the thought entered her mind, every time memories came to her to remind her of all the things she had done, something would pull her out. That _something_ most often than not was six feet of muscles and the face of an overgrown puppy. 

Clint crashed into the communal floor where Tony was about to show Bucky, Steve, Sam and her whatever video he had filmed and uploaded this time. He was still wearing sweaty work out clothes and a wide smile. Clint was the most cheerful of the team, always looking out to improve everyone’s deposition and making sure no one was uncomfortable, even when no one noticed.

Now it wasn’t just normal cheer, but full-on genuine happiness as he nearly fell onto the table. Natasha noted with a bit of sadness that it had been a long time since she had seen Clint like this. 

“Gymnastics is a thing. Tony showed me. It’s amazing.” Clint’s eyes were shining and Natasha loved seeing him like this. “I went through the tag for it and everyone is so talented. It’s been a while, but I tried some stuff. I had Jarvis film it and put it next to the original videos.” He snatched the StarkPad out of Steve’s hands and didn’t notice Steve’s frown as he put it on the table for mostly Natasha to see. 

The videos were clear and very impressive. Clint copied moves from beginner level to Olympic performances with barely any difficulty and Natasha felt proud as she observed everyone else’s jaws drop in astonishment and surprise. They should know that it wasn’t just Clint’s status as Natasha’s partner that made him an Avenger. He had so many skills and things going for him that not many people knew about. Clint didn’t advertise it, often wasn’t aware that it wasn’t normal and now, in a team with people that were not human in one way or another, it just didn’t come up. 

Sam opened his mouth and Natasha kicked him hard. He hissed and glared at her, but she just made a thoughtful noise and pulled Clint’s attention onto her and away from the others. 

“You need to work on your landings. And I saw the video you made with Tony. We’re going to work on your flexibility.” She didn’t compliment him directly. She didn’t let anyone praise him unconditionally for this, because she knew he wouldn’t take it well. He wouldn’t believe a word, would assume they were all being nice and lying to him, humoring him, discouraging him from trying again.

She was working on it.

Clint’s smile brightened even more and he was humming as he went to the kitchen to grab some water. 

With a knowing smile, she observed Bucky staring after Clint and scowl when he noticed her watching him. 

~

Clint had his own TikTok account separate from the Avengers’ one since Tony had most of the control of that one and Clint wouldn’t want to bother him too much. Anyway, Clint started his account and his _for you_ page quickly got drowned in dogs and other animal videos and nothing else, but now that Tony had shown him the Gymnastic side of it, it was like a mix of animals and gymnastics. He had found several profiles to follow from different gyms all over the world. 

It was actually time to go work out some, so Clint was dressed for it, but his phone chimed with a notification and as soon as he unlocked it, he was greeted with the TikTok app he hadn’t closed before. 

“Just one refresh,” he promised and tapped the Following tab. 

An hour later he was still leaning against the arm of the couch, _aw_ -ing and _oh_ -ing and cooing over the videos that greeted him. They were all just so impressive and talented that Clint couldn’t help it.

“This is the last video,” he promised firmly as he swiped up. He really needed to go to the gym to keep in shape. 

It was a video from the account of one of the local gyms here in New York City, showing off the girl gymnastics and new acquisitions. Clint had only found them recently.

The girls were gathered on a mat with the back row sitting on something. Their faces were all serious and though their trainer in the middle of the group was smiling, it was sad. 

“Hello, lovelies. If you have been following for a while, you know we were training toward a big competition. We managed to advance Round one and Round two and were really looking forward to the final rounds.” One of the girls started to cry quietly and was swaddled by hugs from all sides. “Sadly, while we don’t have a problem keeping the gym open, we just don’t have the financial means to pay for the travel at this time. So, I’m sorry to everyone who was also looking forward to seeing more and thank you for your continuous support. It really means the world.”

The video looped and Clint’s heart was breaking. Then his eyes fell on the upload date. Two minutes ago. He had to do something, but his bike was currently unassembled in Tony’s hands, Natasha in a training session with some junior agents, Steve and Sam were on a date and they would all kill Clint if he took any of their vehicles without permission. That just left one.

He rushed to Bucky’s room and pounded on his door until it swung inwards and revealed a darkly scowling Bucky. 

“Someone better be dying, but if that were the case Jarvis or the alarm would have told me already.” He crossed his arms over his chest and any other time Clint would probably be more aware and assess whether or not he should back off or not. 

“They can’t travel. I have to get to the gym. My bike is with Tony and Steve and Sam are all disgustingly in love and I really don’t want to get in that beef sandwich. Well, not in that circumstance. Not that your best friend and his boo aren’t perfectly good looking and sure, I thought about it before, but.”

“Clint,” Bucky snapped, stopping Clint’s ramble immediately. To others it might have seemed harsh and uninviting, but Bucky’s arms went down and his frown was more worried than hateful. 

“There is an emergency and I don’t have my bike. Not an Avenger or SHIELD emergency. No one’s dying, but I need to go. Can I borrow your bike?” Clint stared at Bucky with wide eyes, vibrating with anticipation, chanting _please please please please_ in his head, until Bucky sighed. 

“Fine. But I’ll drive.” 

Clint didn’t even care. He grinned and dashed off towards the garage, not even looking to see if Bucky was following which he was. Just slower. 

They didn’t bother with helmets as Clint climbed on the bike behind Bucky. Clint trusted Bucky’s supersoldier reflexes to keep them safe. During the drive itself Clint couldn’t think about anything other than making it in time and didn’t even notice how tense Bucky was from the way Clint had plastered himself to Bucky’s back and encircled his waist. 

As soon as they arrived at the gym, Clint was off the bike and moving towards the entrance, not acknowledging Bucky’s “Are you kidding me, Barton?” as it was irrelevant to his mission. 

He stepped into a lobby with a small gift shop to the side, signs directing towards the locker rooms, the observation lounge and actual gym. A glass case was displaying trophies and a lot of pictures hung on the walls. There was no time to admire them though. 

The door to the gym opened silently. The girls were training, but the room was lacking the energy their TikToks usually exuded. 

“Coach Andrea,” Clint called out as soon as he spotted her and hurried over. 

She blinked, smiled politely.

“Fantastic what you do for the girls. Really great. I watch all your TikToks. Very good.”

“Oh.” Her brow furrowed, her eyes a little too wide as her shoulders tensed.

“You’re being creepy.” 

Clint glanced to his left in surprise, not expecting Bucky to have stayed with him. Having Bucky tell him that of all people, dialed down Clint’s enthusiasm and made him realize that he was still wearing his exercise clothes and probably looked like an insane person. 

Sheepishly he rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and tried a friendly smile. “Sorry. My name’s Clint. I’m a fan of your gym’s videos. When I saw the video of all of you not being able to go to the rest of the competition rounds, I was devastated.” 

“Thank you,” she said with a smile of her own. She still looked like she didn’t quite know what to do with him, but she was relaxing. “Everyone was really looking forward to it, you know?”

“Yeah. That’s why I’m here. I want to pay for everything.” 

Her mouth fell open, her eyes straying to his threadbare clothes, but before she could say anything, a girl’s voice called out. 

“Are you the Golden Archer?” The girl was barely ten years old with a sparkly purple leotard. He knew her name was Lara from the videos. “From TikTok?” 

Clint grinned at her. “You know who I am? That makes me so happy.” 

“Dude, Meg had a heart attack when you followed us.” Claire snickered when Meg hit her arm with a fierce blush. 

“Do you want to tumble with us?” Lara looked up at him with wide brown eyes and he couldn’t say no to that. 

“I'd love to.” Hopping over he tugged off his shoes and socks and fell onto the mats. “Show me what you got.” 

It was a delightful mess. There was no going one by one, but multiple doing flips and rolls and cartwheels around each other, into each other. Clint helped them do some flips with a hand on their backs and even carried some of the younger ones around on his back with a laugh. 

“Can you show us something? Like, something really cool?” Claire was the meanest of them all, but she was definitely warming up to him and he grinned. 

“Sure. What kind of cool? You guys already watch my videos and there is not much else.” Clint looked around the room, noticed with surprise that Bucky was still here and sitting with Andrea on a chair, body language strangely non combative. Clint took a moment to grin at him and earn a scowl, before he continued his perusal and his eyes caught on something in the corner. “You got aerial silks? It’s been a long time, but I could probably cobble something together.” 

The girls’ eyes all went wide. 

“You can?” Lara exclaimed. “We’ve been trying to get Andrea to let us at them for _ever_.” 

“Learned it in the circus,” Clint told them as he got up and went over to where two strands of red silk hung from a hook over a pit of foam cubes. He jumped in cannonball style and waded over until he was directly below the silk. 

The girls had lined up at the edge of the pit and Andrea and Bucky had followed them. Clint turned his attention to the silks. It had been years since he had even thought of these, so a little bit of concentration was necessary. 

But as soon as he grabbed them and pulled himself up, trapping silk between his feet to climb up a bit, it felt like it had been no time at all. The instincts were all there still. 

Holding himself up with his hands, he swiveled his legs around a strand each, so they were tight around his thighs and he could lean back to grab the silks below him to form a circle. Some muscles protested and he rightened himself to change the hold of the silks to around both ankles. Normal split into a tiny drop. Then he grabbed the silks tight and wrapped them around his wrists and forearms once so the silks held him just under his armpits. His legs went straight up to put himself into a folded position and then did slow somersault after somersault, keeping the position and wrapping the silk around his biceps again and again and again until he was as high up as he could go, hanging like a cross for a moment and taking the time to wink at Bucky. Then he went back down, faster than up, backwards rolls with his legs folded a couple of times. With the added momentum, he pushed his body into a straight line for a couple of turns and then rolled the last ones with his legs in a split until he halted abruptly back in a cross, adrenaline pumping in his ears. 

His laughter nearly got drowned out by the applause and he let himself fall into the pit, vision momentarily obscured by cubes.

Sadly practice time was over after Clint was able to tell a couple of stories about the circus and with parents showing up, there was no chance of making it longer. 

“I’ll come by again and I will absolutely come cheer for you at the final rounds of the competition.”

Lots of faces fell and parents looked angry. 

“Clint, remember, we can’t,” Andrea said softly and he frowned at her. 

“I said I’d pay for it. I did say that, didn’t I?” He looked at Bucky who sighed but nodded. 

“I. I didn’t think you were serious.” Andrea looked stunned. “Are you sure? You’re getting the girls’ hopes up.” 

“A hundred percent serious. Tell me how much you need and what account it has to go into and I’ll do it.” He was tackled to the ground under a mountain of girls, getting more bruises like this than from the sport. 

Andrea and Clint wrapped up the money transfer after everyone else had left and she thanked him profusely which he waved off. He had never had any opportunities like this as a kid and he was damned if he robbed these kids of it. 

“You’re going to tell Tony?” Bucky asked when they got outside to drive back to the Tower. 

“He really doesn’t need to know everything we do.” Clint shrugged and smirked when Bucky didn’t get onto the bike. “Does that mean I’m driving?” 

Bucky’s frown turned into a scowl and he swung his leg over the machine. “Over my dead body.”

Chuckling Clint got on behind him and wrapped his arms around him. “Thank you,” he said just before Bucky turned on the engine. “For coming with me.”

For a moment there was only silence, before Bucky turned on the engine and drove them home without a word.

~

It was team movie night and Clint had made a dozen bowls of popcorn, arranging them on the table in between all the couches. Bruce was distributing drinks while Natasha settled in an armchair, Sam and Steve snuggled on one couch and Bucky sat in his usual seat on a different couch where he could keep an eye on the whole room including exits. It was a habit no one that would mention it and try to change it had noticed for now. 

Tony skipped into the room with a gleeful expression just as Clint sprawled onto the other end of Bucky’s couch, leaving enough room to not touch him. “I have what we’re watching tonight.”

“Hey,” Sam protested. “It was my turn.” 

Tony’s cackle promised either fun or doom, depending who you were in the room. “You want to see this.” He gestured for Jarvis and the TV flickered to life as Tony fell into a different armchair. 

There was no intro or credits, just shaky, black and white footage immediately. A lot of people packed together, mostly men all wearing the same thing. 

“Oh no,” Steve breathed just as the camera panned over to show Steve, dirty, skinny, clothes and helmet way too big for him. 

Sam burst into laughter and he and Tony continued to rib Steve throughout all the footage. It was all a lot of pre-serum Steve and Peggy Carter and Clint noticed Bucky’s hands clenching at his sides, eyes transfixed on the TV. 

The actual serum injection was skipped and then it showed Steve putting on a show in the most ridiculous costume with barely clad dancers and Steve buried his face in his hands. 

Everyone was so focused on teasing Steve that they weren’t paying too much attention to the screen anymore and didn’t notice the theme shift. Steve was leading a group of tired, dirty men along a road towards more men who cheered, welcomed them in, and celebrated Steve. This must have been the rescue of the 107th that got Steve to the actual fighting of the war. Sure enough, there was Bucky, shaven, with short hair and grinning at Steve, but he also looked concerned when Steve got swept away. More footage of the Howling Commandos, fighting and in their down time, humanizing them but putting them up as heroes at the same time for morale. It showed the Bucky he had been over seventy years ago. More carefree even in the middle of the war. Always with a smile and open body language, flirting with whoever happened to pass him. 

Clint looked over at the Bucky sitting next to him, tense like a string ready to snap, eyes down at the ground now, shoulders hunched. And Clint hated it. 

“Boo,” he called and threw popcorn at the TV. “Everyone and their mother has seen this already. Can we get to the actual movie or can I go do something more interesting, like watch paint dry?” 

Rolling his eyes and with a mutter, Tony flapped his hand around and slumped into his seat as Sam told Jarvis which movie to put on. 

When everyone was suitably distracted, Clint scooted over a little and pried open Bucky’s right hand, rubbing over the halfmoon marks his nails had left on his palms. “I like this Bucky much more,” Clint told Bucky quietly and seriously, meeting Bucky’s startled eyes for a moment, before Clint smiled and flopped down with his head in Bucky’s lap and promptly was shoved off onto the ground, appending a bowl of popcorn all over the floor with a curse. But Bucky had relaxed and that was what mattered.

~

“Koala Challenge Competition,” Tony announced, shaking his phone into Bruce’s, Bucky’s, Natasha’s, Steve’s, Sam’s, and Clint’s faces. 

“What,” Natasha said flatly, crossing her arms and while Sam and Clint were intrigued the rest seemed to share Natasha’s stance. 

“Here.” Tony steadied the phone and showed them a video of a girl climbing around a guy and being excited at the end that they didn’t fall. 

“That seems fun. I want to try.” Clint wasn’t even lying. 

“Yeah! Exactly.” Tony nodded and grinned. “I was thinking a competition would be best. And since we have couples.” He wiggled his eyebrows. 

“This is why you pulled me away?” Bruce shook his head and left, continuing to mutter to himself. Natasha settled into her armchair with her tea, clearly not going to participate. 

“But,” Clint cut in and gestured from Bucky to himself. “We’re not a couple.” The fact that it came out more as a question than a statement didn’t really help his case. 

“So, you don’t want to do it?” Tony asked and Clint shook his head quickly.

“I do!” With wide eyes he turned to look at Bucky who sighed as soon as they made eye contact, full of resignation and something else. 

“Loser has dish duty for a week,” Bucky said and Steve got that competitive look in his eyes while Sam and Clint grinned in delight. 

They got one more time to watch the video before Steve and Bucky stood next to each other with their arms out and their legs bent a little. 

“Filming,” Tony announced and Sam and Clint jumped onto Steve’s and Bucky’s back respectively, legs wrapped around their waists and their arms around their necks. 

To Clint’s delight, Bucky didn’t even waver and Clint grinned in anticipation. 

“Go,” Tony shouted and Clint slid around Bucky, ducking under his left arm and pulling himself to be in a front piggyback seat. He would have loved to take a moment to tease Bucky, but this was a competition and he absolutely hated dishes. 

Putting his bare feet onto Bucky’s thighs, Clint went over Bucky’s right shoulder to hang upside down on Bucky’s back with his arms around Bucky’s hips and Clint’s legs under Bucky’s arms around his chest. Using his body weight he let it drag him down even more until he could reach through Bucky’s legs to hook them around Bucky’s thighs to hold onto, so Clint could fold himself right over the ground and get his legs through in between Bucky’s and wrap them around Bucky’s hips. With a sit up Clint got up to wrap his arms around Bucky’s neck. 

When he looked over he saw Steve and Sam struggle with the getting through the legs part and Clint threw his hands in the air with an excited and breathless “Yes!”. He tipped back and had already resigned himself to landing on his ass after putting on an excellent show, when Bucky’s arms went around his back, pulling him up and face to face. 

And Clint realized this had been a mistake. 

He had just climbed all over Bucky, felt his controlled strength, his muscles and big hands right now with the way Bucky was holding Clint up without straining at all. And his face was right there with his pretty eyes and the stubble that would burn deliciously and that mouth. Clint’s mind flashed back to that kiss Bucky had overwhelmed him with. 

“Thanks,” Clint said and untangled his legs, looking away. He was always trying to make Bucky comfortable and this attraction, this _crush,_ was not helping. But before he could step away completely, Bucky’s hands pressed against his back, keeping him right where he was. Clint’s eyes flew up to Bucky’s again and they stared at each other without saying anything. “Bucky?”, Clint asked quietly and something fluttered in his chest he did not want to call hope or anything foolish like that. 

Bucky stared for another moment and then shook his head, letting Clint go and walking away without another word to any of them. 

Clint distracted the other three by gloating, even as his insides were in turmoil and he felt Natasha’s knowing eyes drilling holes into him. 

~

A couple of days later, Clint was bored, lounging on the couch in the common room after he had seen Natasha off for a mission. He didn’t feel like doing anything physical, so he pulled out his phone and opened TikTok, and because he felt a little bit masochistic he looked up the Avengers account to watch the Koala challenge video several times, transfixed by the way Bucky didn’t even twitch under Clint’s weight, the way Bucky’s muscles tensed and relaxed, the way his hands looked on Clint’s back.

When he finally could pull his eyes away from Bucky, he noticed the huge number under the comment symbol. Surprised, he blinked at it and then opened the comment section. 

He shouldn’t have. 

The comments under this video, his introduction video, the kissing prank video, under every single video Clint was in were just hundreds over thousands of comments saying Clint was their least favorite Avenger. Clint had a hot body, but there was nothing else to him. He was physically fit, but he didn’t seem too bright. Steve and Tony obviously were the brains behind the team and Clint should use his brain to get views instead of his body. 

And it wasn’t like they were wrong. The team was full of enhanced humans and geniuses and he was just some dude with a bow and no education to speak of. 

“Agent Barton,” Jarvis suddenly said, breaking Clint out of his thoughts. “Doctor Banner is wondering if you were amenable for a game of chess.”

A game of chess. Bruce and Clint did play against each other several times for some quiet time and Clint had even won a couple, but Bruce had to have let him win, so Clint wouldn’t feel too bad. 

“No. I don’t think. I have to go.” Clint let his phone fall wherever it landed and hurried to the stairs to get out of the tower. The air was getting thin and the walls were closing in on him and he just had to get out.

He wandered the streets in a daze. He didn’t know where he was, where he was going and he didn’t care. He shouldn’t even be on the team. There were so many other people more qualified, smarter than Clint. He didn’t even know why they were keeping him on. 

And Bucky. Bucky must have been laughing at him. No doubt he had noticed Clint’s crush and enjoyed his pitifulness. 

“Fuck,” he breathed out and his legs gave out. Grass poked his palms and bare feet and his face was wet. Was it the rain soaking his clothes or was he crying? God, he was pathetic. 

“You’re going to get sick.”

Clint startled as something dropped on him, covering him from top to bottom. It was a waterproof jacket, warm inside and Clint slowly looked up to see Bucky standing in front of him, only wearing a henley and pushing his increasingly wet hair out of his face. “What?”

“You’re in the rain with barely any clothes. You’re going to get sick.” Bucky frowned down at Clint which wasn’t really different from usual. 

“Right.” His own voice sounded flat to his ears and he forced some cheer into it. “Wouldn’t want the team to be a man down.” Not that they couldn't manage without him. They had Bucky as a sniper and lots of air support. 

Bucky grabbed Clint’s arm to pull him to his feet. “Clint?”

“Nothing.” Clint ducked his head, letting the hood obscure his face as he tried to pull away, but Bucky held fast and his left hand went up Clint’s jaw to tip his head back up. 

Bucky’s face was uncharacteristically free with his hair plastered to his head and only a couple of strands hanging down. He was painfully handsome. “You left your phone unlocked. Is this because of the pre-teens that get off on writing insults anonymously on the internet?”

“Of course not.” Clint tried to pull away again, but Bucky was not letting him go anywhere.

“The Avengers would be nothing without you. I would not be on the team if it wasn't for you.” Bucky pressed Clint’s jaw up to stop him from protesting. “You were never afraid of me. You accepted me into your ranks without question. You got me back to making my own decisions and didn’t make me feel like shit for not being the Bucky from before. You were an asshole sometimes, but you never stepped over the line. Not with me, not with anyone else. You always know exactly what someone needs in any given moment. And without you we would have all died during the last fight. So don’t fucking let some idiots who don’t even know how amazing you are get in your head, when the ones who count are right here.” 

“That’s the most you've talked since we met.” Clint felt like he was choking on his emotions, happy and confused and quite possibly close to crying again. 

“Like I said. An asshole.” Bucky pulled Clint against him and kissed him like he had been thinking about it as much as Clint had, hungry, desperate for it. 

Clint clutched at Bucky’s shoulders, his neck, his hair, nearly dislodging the jacket in trying to keep him right up against him, not wanting this to stop, for Bucky to change his mind, but eventually Clint had to breathe. “I can’t believe you kissed me in the rain. What a romantic.”

“I’ll kill you if you tell anyone.” Bucky’s voice was almost a growl and Clint laughed, before kissing him again, delighted that he got to do this now. 

~ EPILOGUE ~

When Clint’s and Bucky’s relationship got exposed on TikTok after they had kissed in the background of one of Tony’s videos, the public descended into chaos. Homophobes, of course, crawled out of their holes and while there was some congratulation and support messages, most of the reactions were questions about how that even worked. Bucky was a grumpy, murderous asshole for the whole world to see and Clint was the happy, fun one of the group. 

So Clint decided to show them. 

Before one of their movie nights Clint set up a camera to film their couch from the side and where Bucky wouldn’t easily see it. Then Clint left and arrived after Bucky who was already sitting and looking at his phone. 

Clint approached from in front of Bucky. “Hey.” He smiled when Bucky looked up and raised his eyebrows when Clint stepped in between his legs. His smile widened to a full grin when Bucky dropped his phone without looking to the side and grabbed Clint’s sides with both hands, pulling him into his lap without resistance. Bucky kissed the hell out of him, causing Clint to whimper and then suddenly Bucky was rising and flipping them without problem to get Clint on his back and his hands under Clint’s shirt. 

“Buck,” Clint groaned as Bucky’s stubble scraped over his jaw and down to his throat where Bucky was surely leaving another hickey for the collection. Clint had been pleasantly surprised by the possessiveness. “This was not-”

“What?” Bucky’s breath over his damp neck made him shiver. “This was not what you set up the camera for?” 

“You noticed?!”

Bucky raised his head and his smirk was so smug, it turned Clint on. 

“Come here.” Clint buried his fingers in Bucky’s hair to pull him down into a kiss again, making out and maybe going further if Tony hadn’t thrown something at them with a protest. Steve’s face was delightfully flushed.

**Author's Note:**

> Mentioned/Referenced:  
> @paigelayle (Acting Dua Lipa Challenge)  
> @elena_shinohara (Flexibility Check)  
> #Koala Challenge  
> [Aerial Silk move](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUxDxoBpINw)  
> @lukebarker0 (Filming him without him knowing to see how he would react)


End file.
